England's cricketers have spent most of their time in East London running up and down sand dunes close to their hotel, so when they took the field at Buffalo Park today, with much of the area covered with sawdust, they looked very much at home.

This applied to Graeme Swann in particular. The England management were more worried about the form of their batsmen and their faster bowlers, but the day was stolen by Swann, who followed his unbeaten 39 with figures of six for 55, and took three wickets in four balls near the end of this drawn two-day match.

His hat-trick bid was defied by the wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle when an off-break bounced over the stumps. But the batsman was bowled by the next delivery. "I've never had a hat-trick at any level of cricket," Swann said afterwards. "I told everyone that. Straussy [England captain Andrew Strauss] got everyone round the bat. I was desperate for it. It actually hurt. I was gutted.

"The next ball pitched in exactly the same place and hit the stumps. The batsman was still laughing because Matt Prior said something funny, bless him. He said there are two things you should never do, cut a spinner and pat a burning dog. But I feel the ball has been coming out of the hand nicely all tour. It's just nice to get outside and play. Last time I played in whites was the Ashes Test [at The Oval]."

Earlier England, who resumed on 142 for three, made 329 for eight before declaring. The overnight batsman Alastair Cook went on to score 81 before the slowness of the pitch defeated him, and he chipped an attempted on-drive to midwicket. But Ian Bell, who is fighting for his Test place, and Prior both scored forties before retiring.

Swann the batsman would not be denied either. "When it looked like we might pull out today I said to Straussy that I hadn't batted since The Oval. I had to flick it on the computer and show him some of my stroke-play to try and nudge him towards letting me have a go. He was happy to get rid of me for a few overs."

Tomorrow England start their second two-day match and attention will switch to Jimmy Anderson, who was rested for the first match. This morning Anderson bowled at half pace in the nets and with a heavily strapped right knee. Anything less than a proper gallop from him will intensify the already considerable speculation about his fitness for the Test series, which starts at Centurion on Wednesday. Ryan Sidebottom, who has been receiving treatment for a side strain, will also play tomorrow, alongside Luke Wright.

Meanwhile, if the England cricketers have felt a little sorry for themselves, mooching around a damp East London with their hands in their pockets, the South Africa players are not faring much better. They regroup in the scarcely more inspiring surroundings of Potchefstroom tomorrow and will have two days of intensive practice over the weekend before winding down on Monday and Tuesday.

The South Africans, though, have had even less cricket than England. Five of their leading players, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Mark Boucher, have played no first-class cricket for nine months, since a Test against Australia in Cape Town in March.

The rest of the team have not fared much better. Dale Steyn has played only one first-class game, Hamish Amla four and Ashwell Prince, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris and Makhaya Ntini seven apiece.

Kallis's role in the series is still uncertain. Mike Procter, the convenor of selectors, has said that the all-rounder would not play only as a batsman. But today a different message came from the coach, Mickey Arthur, who said: "We should be in a position to assess Jacques's chances of playing on Sunday evening.

"We certainly haven't ruled him out of bowling during the series and we are still working hard with him ahead of the first Test. He has been using an oxygen chamber to try and speed the recovery and is doing extensive rehab every day.

"At the moment the best-case scenario is that he bats and bowls at Centurion, which is probably 50-50; the next best is that he just bats which is probably around 60-40 and the worst-case scenario is that he is only fit for Durban."